Hleb wants steel from Gunners

The Belorussian, courted by Inter, says Arsenal need to adapt to the increased level of aggression in the Premier League

ALEX Hleb has called for his Arsenal team to become harder next season, though being banned for the rest of this season after slapping Reading's Graeme Murty in the face was probably not quite the sort of aggression his manager had in mind. Hleb has been linked to a move away from the Emirates in the summer, but in the aftermath of those painful defeats at Anfield and Old Trafford, which left Arsenal without a trophy for the third successive year, he was not talking like a man on the move.

Instead, as Arsenal travel to Derby County tomorrow night, the Belorussian was absorbing the lessons to be learnt from the sudden anticlimax and reflecting on the very un-Arsenal-like notion of winning ugly. "We have to accept that sometimes victory will not look beautiful," he says. "We need to learn to play to win, not just play the beautiful game.